Federal Judge Dismisses Proview’s U.S. Apple Lawsuit

A federal judge has approved Apple’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that China-based Proview Technologies launched against the iPad maker in the U.S. According to The Wall Street Journal, the judge agreed with Apple’s assertion that the two parties had agreed to duke it out in Hong Kong, effectively knocking the company’s battle out of the U.S. and back to China.

Proview and Apple are suing each other over the “IPAD” trademark, which Apple purchased from Proview in 2009. For its part, Proview has argued that Apple didn’t acquire the rights to the trademark in mainland China, and has sued the company for trademark infringement in that country.

For its part, Apple has argued that it acquired the rights fair and square in a US$55,000 deal in 2009. That deal was conducted with a Taiwan subsidiary of Proview Technology, in part because Proview Technology was undergoing bankruptcy. In 2011, Proview began arguing that said deal didn’t include the mainland China rights.